Chimney Caps & Crowns in Lockport, IL
The top of your chimney is where every problem starts. An open or badly capped flue swallows rain, sleet, and the occasional raccoon; a cracked crown feeds water directly into the brickwork, and Illinois freeze-thaw cycles do the rest. Noble Chimney Sweepers installs properly sized stainless caps and repairs or rebuilds crowns before the water damage travels down into repairs that cost ten times as much.
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Cap & Crown Services
- Stainless steel cap installation — single-flue, multi-flue, and custom sizes, properly measured to your flue
- Crown repair & sealing — flexible, freeze-thaw-rated coating for cracked but structurally sound crowns
- Crown rebuilds — formed concrete crowns with proper overhang and drip edge where sealing isn’t enough
- Animal exclusion — humane removal coordination and screening that ends repeat visits
- Top-sealing dampers — cap and damper in one unit for flues that leak heated air all winter
Small Parts, Big Consequences
Most of the four-figure masonry repairs we quote started as a missing cap or a hairline crown crack years earlier. Water is patient: it enters at the top, saturates the brick cores, freezes, and pries the structure apart season by season. Spalled brick faces in the yard, stained ceilings, that sour smell after rain — all downstream of the chimney’s top two components. It’s why our inspections photograph every crown and cap, and why we’d rather sell you a $249 cap today than a rebuild in five years.
We stock common cap sizes on the truck for homes from Lockport out to Plainfield and Woodridge — many cap installs happen the same visit as the inspection that found the problem. Starting prices for caps and crown work are on the pricing page.
Caps & Crowns FAQs
What does a chimney cap actually do?
Four jobs at once: keeps rain and snow out of the flue, keeps raccoons, squirrels, and birds from nesting in it, stops downdrafts from blowing smoke back into the room, and arrests embers before they land on your roof. For what a cap costs, nothing else on a chimney buys more protection per dollar.
What’s the difference between a cap and a crown?
The crown is the concrete slab that tops the masonry and sheds water away from the brick; the cap is the metal hood over the flue opening itself. They fail differently: crowns crack from weather and movement, caps rust, loosen, or blow off. A healthy chimney needs both.
How do I know if my crown is cracked?
From the ground you usually can’t — crowns fail from the top surface down. Signs that show up indoors are water stains on the ceiling near the chimney, a damp smell after rain, and efflorescence (white staining) on interior brick. We photograph every crown during inspections precisely because homeowners can’t see them.
Can a cracked crown be repaired, or does it need replacement?
Hairline and map cracks can be sealed with flexible crown-repair coating that moves with freeze-thaw cycles — that’s the starting-price fix. Crowns that are crumbling, undersized, or poured without an overhang need to be rebuilt with proper formed concrete. The photos make the call obvious, and we show them to you.
Do you install caps on multi-flue chimneys?
Yes — a single custom multi-flue cap covering both openings is usually cleaner-looking and better value than two singles. Stainless is our default; copper is available when it should match the home.
An animal is in my chimney right now — what do I do?
Don’t light a fire and don’t open the damper. Raccoons in flues are usually mothers with kits in spring; most leave within weeks, and Illinois law protects some species from simple removal. Call us — we’ll assess, coordinate humane removal when needed, and cap the flue so it never happens again.
Why is my new cap whistling or my draft worse after a cheap cap install?
An undersized or badly matched big-box cap restricts flue outflow — the metaphorical thumb over the straw. Caps must be sized to the flue’s dimensions and clearance requirements. Correct sizing is the fix, and it’s why we measure rather than grab the nearest universal cap.
How long do caps and crown repairs last?
A quality stainless cap routinely outlives its 25-year expectation. Flexible crown sealants are typically warrantied around 10 years; a properly formed new crown should last decades. We put the expected lifespan of whichever fix we quote in writing.
Not sure what’s on top of your chimney right now? Call (708) 432-5747 — we’ll take a look and show you photos of exactly what’s up there.